Strap connector buckle

ABSTRACT

A strap connector buckle formed from a single piece of wire includes spaced pairs of strap engaging arms and means to prevent spreading apart of said arms under tension forces exerted by the strap. In one version, a bend or elbow portion in the wire transmits tension forces from one arm to the other to prevent spreading of said arms while in a second version, interlocking bights of the wire transmit tension forces and thus resist any tendency towards spreading of said arms.

United States Patent [191 Somann Dec. 9, 1975 l l STRAP CONNECTOR BUCKLE We} lnventor: Gert P. Somann, Box 34, Algonquin Drive, Huron Park, Ontario, Canada. NOM-IYO 22 Filed: July 29, 1974 21 Appl. No.: 492,848

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 8, I974 Canada 189673 [52] US. Cl 24/74 A [51] Int. Cl. A4413 11/00 [58] Field of Search 24/74 A, 26, 198

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 686.l29 11/1901 Ragsdale et a] 24/26 3,l 12.543 l2/l963 Derrickson 24/74 A l2/l97l 5/1972 Somann 24/74 A Somann 24/74 A Primary Examiner-Wemer H. Schroeder Assistant ExaminerPeter Nerbun Attorney, Agent, or FirmCushman, Darby & Cushman ABSTRACT A strap connector buckle formed from a single piece of wire includes spaced pairs of strap engaging arms and means to prevent spreading apart of said arms under tension forces exerted by the strap. In one version, a bend or elbow portion in the wire transmits tension forces from one arm to the other to prevent spreading of said arms while in a second version, interlocking bights 'ofthe wire transmit tension forces and thus resist any tendency towards spreading of said I arms.

is Claims, 9 Drawing Figures us. Patent M91975 3,924,302

FIG. 8.

FIG. 9.

FIG. 3.

STRAP CONNECTOR BUCKLE This invention relates to an improved strap connector buckle for securing opposing ends of a flexible strap which is tensioned and arranged around a package, bale, box or bundle or other object that is to be tied or secured.

In recent years, non-metallic strapping, such as nylon, polypropelene, rayon and the like particularly in band or strap configuration, has become increasingly popular. In turn, there has been a demand for specialized fasteners or buckles for securing and tensioning the opposite ends to band or strap loops by means of frictional engagement rather than by means of strapping and sealing tools. Such fasteners or buckles, in order to be effective, must not only grip the band or strap and hold it securely, but also must be arranged such that the band or strap can easily be threaded thereinto by unskilled persons without the use of specialized tools.

In recent years, a number of connector buckle designs have evolved all of which consist of a single length of steel wire appropriately shaped. Unfortunately, in most of these designs, problems have arisen as a result of distortion occurring in the buckle under heavy tension well below the breaking point of the strapping being used. This distortion tends to destroy the parallel arrangement between the pairs of strap engaging arms at the opposite sides of the connector buckle and thus reduces the frictional hold which the buckle has on the plastic strapping thus causing slippage and hence some loosening of the strapping about the package or object which is tied.

It is an object of the present invention to provide improved connector buckles designed and arranged in such a way as to strongly resist the tendency for the arms to be pulled out of parallelism under the influence of the forces applied thereto by the taut strapping.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention there is provided a strap connector buckle formed of a single piece of wire, said connector buckle being approximately rectangular in outline and comprising a first pair and a second pair of strap engaging arms on the first and second opposing marginal sides respectively of the connector buckle, the arms of each pair being approximately parallel to one another and to the arms of the opposing pair and being spaced apart sufficiently to permit, in use, a strap with which the connector buckle is to be used to be passed therebetween, a first arm of each of said pairs being a terminal portion of the wire and having a free end and the second arm of each pair being an intermediate wire segment, the arms of each pair being further arranged such that both of said first arms are located on one face of the buckle while both of said second arms are located on the opposing face of the buckle, a first generally U-shaped bight of the wire connecting the first arm of the first pair to one end of the second arm of the first pair and a second generally U-shaped bight of the wire connecting the first arm of the second pair to one end of the second arm of the second pair, said first and second U-shaped bights of wire being interlooped together so that they can transmit tension loads whereby to resist any tendency for the second arms of the first and second pairs to be spread apart under the influence of strap tension forces thereon, and a further run of the wire connecting the other ends of said second arms together.

Thus, it will be appreciated from the above that the interlocking bights of wire serve to transmit strap tension forces between the second arms of the first and second pairs thus preventing them from being spread apart under the influence of strap tension forces.

As will be seen hereinafter, the first and second bights of wire may be of approximately equal length and thus may be looped or interlocked together approximately midway along the end of the buckle; alternatively the bights may be of unequal length and, in one embodiment, may be looped or interlocked together adjacent one corner of the connector buckle.

As with the above described first aspect of the invention, the free ends of the first arms may be arranged to engage and be supported by said further run of wire when the strap is under tension. That is, under high strap tension forces, the first arms will deflect a certain degree until the free ends contact a further run of wire after which further substantial deflection is very strongly resisted, thus serving to maintain substantial parallelism of the various arms.

The invention will now be described by way of examples with reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the strap connector buckle;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the buckle of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the embodiment of FIG. 1 illustrating. diagrammatically the manner in which a strap is laced to the buckle;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the embodiment of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an end view of the embodiment of FIG. 4 illustrating diagrammatically how a connector strap is threaded to the buckle;-

FIG. 7 is a further embodiment of the invention which is similar in many respects to the embodiment of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a plan view of the embodiment of FIG. 7 and FIG. 9 is an end view of the embodiment of FIG. 7 illustrating diagrammatically how a strap is threaded to the connector buckle.

With reference now to the first embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 1-3, (reference being had to applicants copending divisional application Ser. No. 549,804 filed Feb. 13, 1975) there is shown a strap connector buckle 10 formed from a single piece of round wire appropriately bent to the desired shape. It will be seen that the connector buckle is approximately rectangular in outline and includes a first and second pair of strap engaging arms 12 and 14 on the opposing sides of the connector buckle. It will also be seen that the arms of each pair are generally straight and approximately parallel to one another and to the arms of the opposisng pair, the arms being spaced apart sufficiently to permit the connector strap with which the connector buckle is to be used to be passed therebetween. It will also be seen that the first arms 16, 16a of each of said pairs of said arms 12 and 14 constitute terminal portions of the wire having free ends 18, 18a. Furthermore, it will be seen that the second arms 20, 20a of each pair constitute intermediate wire segments. As shown in the drawings, a first run of the wire 22 connects the first arm 16 of the first pair to the second arm 20a of the second pair. A second run of the wire 24 serves to connect the second arm 20 of the first pair to the first arm 16a of the second pair and in addition, a

3 further run of the wire 26 connects the second arms 20, 20a of the opposed pairs of arms to one another.

In accordance with an important aspect of the invention, the above mentioned first run of wire 22 has an end portion thereof 23 adjacent the point of connection to the first arm 16 provided with a generally right angled elbow portion which extends around a portion of the second arm 20 sufficiently as to permit strap tension forces which are directed outwardly in the direction of arrows A in FIG. 1 to be transmitted from one of the second arms 20 to the other second arm 20a via the first run of wire 22 whereby to resist any tendency towards spreading apart of arms 20, 200.

It will be seen that the elbow portion 23 comprises a simple but relatively sharp bend in the first run of wire 22 adjacent one end thereof, the bend 23 being located adjacent that end of the second arm 20 to which the second run of wire 24 is attached. Thus, under the influence of strap tension forces on the second arms 20, 20a, the right angle bend portion 23 comes into contact with the second arm 20 thus transmitting forces thereto and resisting the tendency towards spreading.

As a general observation with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3, it will be noted that the first arms 16, 16a of the opposed pairs 12 and 14 are located on the upper sides of the buckle It), when in use, while the second arms 20, 20a are located on the under side of the buckle. It will also be noted with particular reference to FIGS. 1 and 3 that the further run of wire 26 includes an upstanding elbow 28 at each of its opposed ends. Thus, an intermediate portion 29 of the further run of wire 26 is disposed above the level of the second arms 20, 20a. It will also be noted with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 that the free ends 18, 38a of the first arms 16, 16a extend beyond the further run of wire 26. Under the influence of strap tension forces on the arms, when the strap has been properly threaded to the buckle, as will be described, the free ends of the first arms deflect downwardly and inwardly as shown by arrows B in FIG. 3. Thus, such free ends of the arms come into contact with the fiirther run of wire 26 adjacent elbows 28 and are supported thereby thus preventing further undue distortion of the first arms and loss of parallelism between such arms and the remaining arms of the connector buckle. It is of course to be noted that the further run of wire 26 need not necessarily be provided with the upstanding elbows 28. In the absence of such elbows, the free ends of the first arms will simply be deflected downwardly and inwardly until such time as they contact the further run of wire 26 for support thereby.

With reference to FIG. 3, which illustrates the manner in which the strap is connected to the buckle 10, it will be seen that the free end of the strap 30, which straps or tapes are well known per se in the art, is passed around and under the second arm 20a and thence upwardly and around the first arm of the same pair 16a and thence downwardly between arms 16a and 20a and thence around arm 20a whereby it is firmly sandwiched between the tensioned tape and arm 20a. The other end of tape 30 is brought around the package or bale and is secured to the arms 16 and 20 of the first pair of arms in essentially the same fashion.

With reference now to FIGS. 4-6, there is shown a separate embodiment of the invention which differs from the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3 in a number of important respects. The buckle of FIG. 4 will be designated by the reference numeral 40 and it will be seen 4 that, as with the previous embodiment, it is formed from a single piece of round wire. The connector buckle, as before, is approximately rectangular in outline and includes first and second pairs 42 and 44 of strap engaging arms on opposing sides of the connector buckle. As with the previous embodiment the anns of each pair are generally straight and approximately parallel to one another and to the arms of the opposing pair and they are spaced apart sufficiently as to permit the connector strap with which the connector is to be used to be passed between such arms. A first arm 46, 46a of each of said pairs 42 and 44 constitutes a terminal portion of the wire and they have free ends 48, 48a. Furthermore, the second arms 50, 50a of each of the opposed pairs 42 and 44 comprise an intermediate wire segment. In accordance with an important feature of the invention a first U-shaped bight 52 of the wire serves to connect the first arm 46 of the first pair of arms to one end of the second arm 50 of the first pair. Furthermore, a second U-shaped bight 54 of the wire serves to connect the first arm 46a of the second pair to one end of the second arm 50a of the second pair. It

. will be seen that the first and second U-shaped bights of wire 52 and 54 are interlooped together approximately midway along the end of the connector buckle. That is, in the embodiment of FIGS. 4-6, the U-shaped bights of wire 52 and 54 are of substantially equal length. By virtue of the fact that the U-shaped bights of wire 52 and 54 are interlooped together, they are capable of transmitting tension loads and thus they serve to resist any tendency for the second arms 50, 50a of the first and second pairs of arms 42 and 44 to be spread apart under the influence of strap tension forces thereon. It will also be noted from a review of FIGS. 4-6 that a further run of the wire 56 connects the opposite ends of the second arms 50, 50a together, such further run serving basically the same purpose as wire run 26 mentioned in conjunction with the embodiments of FIGS. I-3.

It will also be noted that when the connector buckle is in use, the free ended first arms 46, 46a are disposed on the face of the buckle while the second arms 50, 50a are disposed on the lower or opposing face of the buckle. It will also be noted that, as with the embodiment of FIGS. l-3, that the free ends 48, 48a of the first arms 46, 46a extend outwardly beyond the further run of wire 56 which connects the other end of the second arms 50, 50a together. Thus, under the influence of strap tension forces which cause such free ends 48, 48a to be sprung downwardly in a direction of arrows B as shown in FIG. 6, such free ends engage the further run of wire 56 and are supported thereby thus preventing undue distortion and loss of parallelism between the first arms and said second arms.

The manner in which a connector strap is threaded to the connector buckle of FIGS. 4-6 is essentially the same as described in connection with the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3 and need not be repeated here.

The embodiments shown in FIGS. 7-9 are a variation of the embodiments of FIGS. 4-6 and thus a full description of this embodiment need not be repeated here. It will be seen that the embodiment of FIGS. 7-9 includes spaced pairs of arms on opposing sides of the connector including free ended first arms 46, 46a and second arms 50, 50a as previously described. The essential difference, however, is that the U-shaped bights of wire 52', 54 are of unequal length. That is, U- shaped bight 54' is sufficiently long as to extend across the entire end of the connector buckle so that it interloops with the very short U-shaped bight 52 at one of the comers of the connector buckle. This version of the connector buckle functions as described previously in connection with FIGS. 4-6 to prevent spreading apart of the second arms 50, 50a under the influence of tension forces thereon. As a further difference, it will also be noted that the further run of wire 56' which serves to connect the other ends of second arms 50, 50a together differs from that shown in connection with FIGS. 4-6. In FIGS. 4-6, the further run of wire 56 is substantially straight whereas in the embodiment of FIGS. 7-9, the opposing ends of the further run of wire are provided with upstanding elbow portions 60 so that the further run of wire 56' assumes a configuration very similar to the configuration of the further run of wire 26 in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3. Thus, since the free ends 48, 48a of first arms 46, 46a extend beyond the further run of wire 56, the free ends of such first arms deflect downwardly under the influence of strap tension forces as illustrated by arrows B in FIG. 9 and thus come to rest against the further run of wire 56 adjacent the upstanding elbow portions 60 thereof.

The manner in which the connector strap is threaded to the connector buckle of FIGS. 7-9 is the same as that shown for the embodiments of FIGS. 1-6 and need not be repeated here.

It will thus be seen that the present invention, in its several aspects, provides connector buckle designs which are capable of resisting heavy strap tension forces and serve to maintain the various arms of the connector buckle in substantial parallelism at all times. Thus, the frictional hold which the buckle has on the strapping material is maintained and there is less chance of slippage occurring with resultant loosening of the strapping about the package or object which is to be tied than with prior art designs.

Several embodiments of the invention have been illustrated by way of example but not by way of limitation. The scope of the invention is to be determined by reference to the claims appended hereto.

I claim:

1. A strap connector buckle formed of a single piece of wire, said connector buckle being approximately rectangular in outline and comprising a first pair and a second pair of strap engaging arms on the first and second opposing marginal sides respectively of the connector buckle, the arms of each pair being approximately parallel to one another and to the arms of the opposing pair and being spaced apart sufficiently to permit, in use, a strap with which the connector buckle is to be used to be passed therebetween, a first arm of each of said pairs being a terminal portion of the wire and having a free end and the second arm of each pair being an intermediate wire segment, the arms of each pair being further arranged such that both of said first arms are located on one face of the buckle while both of said second arms are located on the opposing face of the buckle, a first generally U-shaped bight of the wire connecting the first arm of the first pair to one end of the second arm of the first pair and a second generally U-shaped bight of the wire connecting the first arm of the second pair to one end of the second arm of the second pair, said first and second U-shaped bights of wire being interlooped together so that they can transmit tension loads whereby to resist any tendency for the second arms of the firsst and second pairs to be spread apart under the influence of strap tension forces thereon, and a further run of the wire connecting the other ends of said second arms together.

buckle.

4. A strap connector buckle according to claim 1 wherein said first and second bights are of unequal length.

'5. A strap connector buckle according to claim 4 wherein said bights are looped or interlocked together at one corner of the connector buckle.

6. A strap connector buckle according to claim 1, wherein the free ends of said first arms are arranged to engage and be supported by said further run of wire when the strap is under tension. 

1. A strap connector buckle formed of a single piece of wire, said connector buckle being approximately rectangular in outline and comprising a first pair and a second pair of strap engaging arms on the first and second opposing marginal sides respectively of the connector buckle, the arms of each pair being approximately parallel to one another and to the arms of the opposing pair and being spaced apart sufficiently to permit, in use, a strap with which the connector buckle is to be used to be passed therebetween, a first arm of each of said pairs being a terminal portion of the wire and having a free end and the second arm of each pair being an intermediate wire segment, the arms of each pair being further arranged such that both of said first arms are located on one face of the buckle while both of said second arms are located on the opposing face of the buckle, a first generally U-shaped bight of the wire connecting the first arm of the first pair to one end of the second arm of the first pair and a second generally U-shaped bight of the wire connecting the first arm of the second pair to one end of the second arm of the second pair, said first and second U-shaped bights of wire being interlooped together so that they can transmit tension loads whereby to resist any tendency for the second arms of the firsst and second pairs to be spread apart under the influence of strap tension forces thereon, and a further run of the wire connecting the other ends of said second arms together.
 2. A strap connector buckle according to claim 1 wherein said further run of wire has an elbow at each of its opposing ends adjacent the points of connection thereof to said second arms to provide support for said free ended first arms when the latter are deflected towards said further run of wire under the influence of high strap tension forces.
 3. A strap connector buckle according to claim 1 wherein said first and second bights of wire are of approximately equal length and are interlooped together approximately midway along the end of the connector buckle.
 4. A strap connector buckle according to claim 1 wherein said first and second bights are of unequal length.
 5. A strap connector buckle according to claim 4 wherein said bights are looped or interlocked together at one corner of the connector buckle.
 6. A strap connector buckle according to claim 1, wherein the free ends of said first arms are arranged to engage And be supported by said further run of wire when the strap is under tension. 